Igor Zhelezovski

Olympic medal record
Men’s speed skating
Representing Soviet Union
	1988 Calgary	1,000 m
Representing Belarus
	1994 Lillehammer	1,000 m

Igor Zhelezovski

Igor Nikolayevich Zhelezovski (Russian: Игорь Николаевич Железовский) (born 1 July 1963 in Orsha, Belarus) is a former speed skater, considered to be one of the best sprinters ever, which resulted in his nickname "Igor the Terrible". Originally competing for the Soviet Union, then for the Commonwealth of Independent States, and finally for Belarus, he became World Sprint Champion a record number of six times, a record still unequalled as of (and including the Championships of) 2007. In Soviet times, he trained at Armed Forces sports society in Minsk.

Igor Zhelezovski won silver at the World Junior Allround Championships in 1982. Specialising in the sprint, he became World Sprint Champion in 1985, 1986, 1989, 1991, 1992, and 1993. He finished eighth in the 1987 edition, having just recovered from an illness, and decided to skip the 1988 edition in favour of preparing for the Winter Olympics in Calgary that same year. These, however, turned out to be a disappointment for him, finishing sixth on the 500 m, "only" third on his favourite 1,000 m, and fourth on the 1,500 m. The remaining two World Sprint Championships he participated in, in 1990 and 1994, he finished third and sixth, respectively.

His final two seasons, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Zhelezovski skated for Belarus. After ending his skating career in 1994, Zhelezovski became president of the skating union of Belarus, a position he held for several years.

Medals

An overview of medals won by Zhelezovski at important championships he participated in, listing the years in which he won each:

Championships	Gold medal	Silver medal	Bronze medal
Winter Olympics	–	1994 (1,000 m)	1988 (1,000 m)
World Sprint	1985 1986 1989 1991 1992 1993	–	1990
World Cup	1991 (1,000 m) 1992 (1,000 m) 1993 (1,000 m)	–	1993 (500 m) 1994 (1,000 m)
World Junior Allround	–	1982	–
Soviet Allround	–	–	–
Soviet Sprint	1985 1986 1989 1990 1991	–	1984

World records

Over the course of his career, Zhelezovski skated four world records, one of which equalled Pavel Pegov's six year old world record on the 1,000 m:

Event	Result	Date	Venue
1,500 m	1:54.26	26 March 1983	Medeo
1,500 m	1:52.50	5 December 1987	Calgary
1,000 m	1:12.58	25 February 1989	Heerenveen
Sprint combination	145.945	26 February 1989	Heerenveen

Personal records

To put these personal records in perspective, the WR column lists the official world records on the dates that Zhelezovski skated his personal records.

Event	Result	Date	Venue	WR
500 m	36.49	21 December 1985	Medeo	36.57
1,000 m	1:12.58	25 February 1989	Heerenveen	1:12.58
1,500 m	1:52.50	5 December 1987	Calgary	1:52.70
3,000 m	4:12.85	9 January 1988	Davos	3:59.27
5,000 m	7:09.84	25 March 1983	Medeo	6:54.66
10,000 m	15:40.82	26 March 1983	Medeo	14:23.59
Big combination	166.201	26 March 1983	Medeo	162.973

Note that Zhelezovski's personal record on the 500 m was not a recognised as a world record by the International Skating Union (ISU).

Zhelezovski has an Adelskalender score of 164.015 points.

References

• Igor Zhelezovski at SkateResults.com
• Igor Zhelezovski. Deutsche Eisschnelllauf Gemeinschaft e.V. (German Skating Association).
• Personal records from Jakub Majerski's Speedskating Database
• Evert Stenlund's Adelskalender pages
• Results of Championships of Russia and the USSR from SpeedSkating.ru
• Historical World Records. International Skating Union.